Dealing with a Dementor
by TraScully
Summary: How did Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Lupin, Tonks, Ron, and Hermione react the first time they ever met a dementor? What memories came back to them? Each chapter a different character.
1. Albus Dumbledore

My experience with a dementor  
Author: TraScully  
Rating: K  
Summary: So... how would our favorite Harry Potter characters react to the dementors? Or, how _did_ they react to them?

Note: I took crazy mad personal liberties when describing the inside of Azkaban and visiting rights and the wards, etc. I have no idea what Azkaban is like, because we're never really taken there. So I tried to make it plausible... it made sense to me that they'd want some wizards there at all times, not just the dementors. It just seemed like something could go wrong and it's not like dementors are going to jump up and help... so yeah. If you have any better ideas for the prison, review and tell me because I'm trying to make it believable. Thanks!

**Chapter 1: Albus Dumbledore**  
The first time I came into contact with a dementor, was a sad day indeed. It was during Voldemort's first reign, and the Lestranges were being put in Azkaban. In those days, we sent a Ministry official with each sentencing to the prison, to oversee the criminals being put in. I had just arrived with Professor McGonagall, who was an Auror at the time, and we were awaiting verification of where we were supposed to go. It was raining and windy, and as we stood just inside the first gate, a dementor passed in front of us, slowing until he was out of our way. In that instant while he was in front of me, I had a terrible, terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. Minerva breathed in sharply next to me, I suppose she was feeling the same way, and all I could think of was how badly it had hurt me when my father died.

The memory came rushing back to me, and all I could see was my brother Aberforth standing next to father's crumbled body, screaming. The retreating Death Eaters had all but disappeared from the park and I couldn't breathe. It was all so quickone second, I had been smiling, joking with Aberforth over our father's apparent memory loss, when all of a sudden the Dark Mark went up and people started panicking.

Everyone was running and yelling and then _they_ started attacking. I hadn't ever seen my brother angry before, but he stunned one Death Eater three times in a row and I can't imagine how the man could have survived. Then everything became still, to me at least, and I heard the Killing Curse from behind me. I ducked to dodge it, turning around to see who had fired it, and Stunned them in defense. But, as I turned back to face my father ad brother again, I saw the green light surround my dad and he collapsed.

"NOOOOOOO!" I jetted toward him, reaching him just as the Death Eaters were disapparating or running away, and Aberforth was already at his side. My heart shriveled up and I couldn't control my screaming. I cursed every blade of grass, every bush, the park bench, everything I could see until I couldn't drag up any more hate and then I collapsed. This couldn't be happening. It just couldn't.

I opened my eyes. The dementor had passed by me and left through the gate, out to resume his position near the Azkaban entrance. Minerva was looking at me with an odd sort of heavy expression on her face, as if she knew the precise memory I had just relived. I felt her hand on the inside of my elbow, and I straightened. We were here to do business, and it needed to be done. Looking back at the ward who had been checking on the Lestrange's cell block numbers, I found he was waiting patiently for me to regain my composure.

"Nasty creatures, the dementors are," he told me, "Most people take some time gettin' used to them." I nodded my understanding. I had heard so much about them and the feelings they provoked, but never in my life had I prepared for so much torment. Glancing back down at Minerva, she was still looking at me, as if inspecting me to make sure I was alright. I nodded my thanks, and we followed the ward up twisting staircases.


	2. Minerva McGonagall

My experience with a dementor  
Author: TraScully  
Rating: K  
Summary: So... how would our favorite Harry Potter characters react to the dementors? Or, how _did_ they react to them?

Note: I took crazy mad personal liberties when describing the inside of Azkaban and visiting rights and the wards, etc. I have no idea what Azkaban is like, because we're never really taken there. So I tried to make it plausible... it made sense to me that they'd want some wizards there at all times, not just the dementors. It just seemed like something could go wrong and it's not like dementors are going to jump up and help... so yeah. If you have any better ideas for the prison, review and tell me because I'm trying to make it believable. Thanks!

**Chapter 2: Minerva McGonagall**  
I vividly remember the first time I met a dementor. I was only eight years old, and I didn't carry the bad memories I do at the present time, so the experience was not what I understand it to be now. The first time, it was more like... an awakening, of sorts, instead of a reliving of my past.

I was with my mother, and we had gone to Azkaban, as we did each month, to visit my grandfather. He was a guard. My mother had only begun bringing me along, so I had only actually visited the prison three or four times. These first visits I had the wonderful luck not to meet any dementors. But this time was different.

We strolled through the front gate, the ward recognized us and volunteered to check us out himself, making sure we hadn't any weapons or illegal devices on us (which I assure you we did not), and then we took a left turn and walked down the endless staircases to Grandfather Henry McGonagall's block.

His job was to sit in the block office and make sure nothing was amiss. Why he decided to work in the wizard prison of all places, I will never know. But this time, when we approached the bottom staircase, a dementor was hovering in our path. My mother gasped and whipped out her wand, moving to block me from the menacing creature, but I felt it nonetheless.

Everything around me vanished, and I felt as if my head would explode. I remembered things I had been told, things I had overheard form hushed voices in our kitchen, the adults discussing bad things to come, my friends' conversations, the killings, the hatred, the wars going on with the muggles, everything I had ever heard started clogging my brain. A searing pain overtook me, and my knees gave in. I hit the floor hard and cried out, and then my head cleared and I realized it: not all wizards are good. Evil is all around. The Dark Lord is coming. My life will be spent trying to stop him. Terrible things will happen to me. People I love will die. My world will never be the same.

I lie there on the cold steps shivering as my mother forced the dementor away with a Patronus. Grandfather rushed out of his office and picked me up carefully, my mother following us worriedly. We went up and out of the prison, and I have only been back twice since: once with Albus on business, and once to visit my grandfather again.


	3. Severus Snape

My experience with a dementor  
Author: TraScully  
Rating: K  
Summary: So... how would our favorite Harry Potter characters react to the dementors? Or, how _did_ they react to them?

Note: I took crazy mad personal liberties when describing the inside of Azkaban and visiting rights and the wards, etc. I have no idea what Azkaban is like, because we're never really taken there. So I tried to make it plausible... it made sense to me that they'd want some wizards there at all times, not just the dementors. It just seemed like something could go wrong and it's not like dementors are going to jump up and help... so yeah. If you have any better ideas for the prison, review and tell me because I'm trying to make it believable. Thanks!

**Chapter 3: Severus Snape**  
I have only met a dementor once, and it was during Potter's third year. The dementors had been assigned to guard the school against Sirius Black and apparently weren't doing a good job of it. But those three Gryffindors managed to make my life a living hell that night. First Potter jinxed me, knocking me out, then Lupin became a werewolf and almost killed me, and worst of all BLACK GOT AWAY!

But about the dementor, I met it in the tower while we were preparing for the Dementor's Kiss to be administered to Black. He was in the top cell and I was outside the door, anxiously awaiting my revenge. It had been a long time coming.

Dumbledore came up the stairs, breathless as if he'd just run a mile with a hippogriff on his tail, followed by a dementor. I shrank back at the sight; it wasn't quite as subdued as I had expected.

The moment it neared me, though, everything seemed to dissolve and I remembered the worst day of my life. James Potter and the others laughing. Me hanging upside down. The taunting. The jeering laughter. Lily Evans, that mudblood, trying to defend me. The nerve of her! Hatred ran through my veins. I could have killed them all, if I only had my wand.

But as the memory came back clearer and clearer, my anger faded away and I felt anguished, pained, and helpless. Why did this have to happen to me? They were all laughing. The embarrassment. I felt like a bug being crushed. The tears I could hide, but the sobs I couldn't. Once they had dropped me back down to the ground and had all left, I buried my face in my robed and cried there by the Whomping Willow. Things would never get better, never.

A racking cough brought me back to the present. Dumbledore's arm was on my shoulder reassuringly, and the dementor had already passed into Black's cell. I didn't look at the Headmaster, but simply followed the shadowy demon into the stone doorway. But Black wasn't there!


	4. Remus Lupin

My experience with a dementor  
Author: TraScully  
Rating: K  
Summary: So... how would our favorite Harry Potter characters react to the dementors? Or, how _did_ they react to them?

Note: I took crazy mad personal liberties when describing the inside of Azkaban and visiting rights and the wards, etc. I have no idea what Azkaban is like, because we're never really taken there. So I tried to make it plausible... it made sense to me that they'd want some wizards there at all times, not just the dementors. It just seemed like something could go wrong and it's not like dementors are going to jump up and help... so yeah. If you have any better ideas for the prison, review and tell me because I'm trying to make it believable. Thanks!

**Chapter 4: Remus Lupin  
**I had studied all about dementors at Hogwarts, I was very interested in them, and when James and Sirius suggested we go to Azkaban one day during summer break, I thought they were joking. But no, as I had come to learn, you really could expect anything out of those two. As the day neared, I became overcome with excitement. Even though they were said to be among the foulest creatures on earth, I longed to see one finally. The pictures and the books didn't teach me everything I longed to learn, and maybe this trip would.

They came up with a plan, a pretty good one I admit, to ask and see Professor McGonagall's grandfather that worked there. He was apparently some kind of warden or guard or something, and they could say they were Hogwarts students and needed to shadow him for some reason. It sounded like a good excuse to get in at the time, but we had no idea the kind of security they had at Azkaban. 

The second we entered the prison, I knew our idea wouldn't work. Before we even got to the first guard, I felt my insides growing cold. Looking to the sides, I saw two dementors closing in on us. The outsiders. I gasped and tried to grab Sirius but my arms wouldn't move and so I was left standing there, staring wide-eyed at the two demons.

Then everything went black. I was standing in the yard next to Sirius' house. It was ten years ago, midnight. Nymphadora Tonks had gotten out of her car and was walking toward the front door of Sirius' house, humming some catchy bobble-gum song, when she heard me. She whirled around and caught sight of me, and then she went white as a sheet and sort of froze. I growled and lunged toward her. She screamed and tried to get away, but I had seen recognition in her eyes the second before. She knew it was me, and that she was in grave danger. Something inside me screamed "DON'T DO IT! SHE'S YOUR FRIEND!" But then some carnal instinct took over and I just had the urge to bite her. I pinned her down on the ground and growled as loud as I could.

Just then, the front door flew open and Sirius, James, and Peter came dashing out of the house. Sirius was already changed into his dog form, and he and Peter tackled me. Sirius' paws scratched at me, trying to keep me away from Tonks long enough for James to get her inside. She wasn't hurt, no, but I had scared her out of her mind. Peter pulled the vial out of his pocket they had prepared for me, but I had forgotten about. My potion. He poured as much of it as he could down my throat, and Sirius really outdid himself by holding me down. I always underestimated his strength. Once the potion had gone down my throat, I struggled for a few seconds more but then went limp. I was exhausted, and they slowly backed away from me.

James came back out of the house, and Nymphadora insisted on watching from the window. Why in the world she'd want to watch my painful transformation back into a human, I'll never know. But she did. As always, I thought I would die. The pain was immeasureable, and once the change was complete Sirius hurriedly slipped a t-shirt over my head. Blood dripped from scratched on my chest from Sirius, but of course I couldn't hold it against him. He had stopped me from killing Tonks, or worse, from making her a werewolf.

As the three helped me inside, I couldn't help stealing a glance at Tonks, who was still nestled at the window, shaken but unharmed. She didn't take her eyes off me. It was almost as if... as if she understood me. She didn't hate me, or fear me, or pity me... or maybe it was a mixture of all three. But I think she understood me.


	5. Nymphadora Tonks

My experience with a dementor  
Author: TraScully  
Rating: K  
Summary: So... how would our favorite Harry Potter characters react to the dementors? Or, how _did_ they react to them?

Note: I took crazy mad personal liberties when describing the inside of Azkaban and visiting rights and the wards, etc. I have no idea what Azkaban is like, because we're never really taken there. So I tried to make it plausible... it made sense to me that they'd want some wizards there at all times, not just the dementors. It just seemed like something could go wrong and it's not like dementors are going to jump up and help... so yeah. If you have any better ideas for the prison, review and tell me because I'm trying to make it believable. Thanks!

**Chapter 5: Nymphadora Tonks  
**The first time I saw a dementor was during my Auror training. I was two years into it when we started doing our practicals. You know, dueling, stealth tracking, that sort of thing. It was a Wednesday and we were outside on the lawn dueling. I had just been hit by Kingsley's expelliarmus and my wand now rested in his hand.

With an annoyed sigh, I levitated it back to me and we started again. After about an hour of being hit from behind, stunned, frozen, jinxed, and knocked off my feet, Mad-Eye called us over and announced that we would be taking a little trip.

"The Minister requested you be taken to Azkaban, because none of you have ever been," he told us heavily, "and you need to know where you're going to be sending people." I glanced up at Kingsley and he shrugged, but I was already frightened. I had heard so much about the wizard prison since I was a little girl, and I dreaded the trip that was to take place the next day.

So I went home, found Sirius and his friend James at my kitchen table with my mom, and told them about the trip to Azkaban. Sirius and James exchanged a meaningful look and then approached me, shoving me into the next room.

"You're going to Azkaban tomorrow!" Sirius asked me, as if he hoped it wasn't true. I nodded.

"Professor Moody says it'll help us if we know where we're sending people," I replied, already wanting to do my share and rid the world of those creepy Death Eaters everyone was talking about. There were so many rumors flying at the moment, about some Dark Lord rising and getting up a bunch of wacko followers to rid the world of mudbloods. Nymphadora didn't really understand what was happening, but she knew it sounded wrong and she wanted to stop it from growing.

"Have you ever seen a dementor?" James asked, jolting me from my thoughts.

"No, but we've studied them a lot," I replied, trying to figure out where this was going.

Sirius and James exchanged looks again. "Well, just go in there prepared for the worst," Sirius told her, and then they got up and left the room. I was sitting on the couch, wondering what on earth they meant. Dementors were supposed to make you relive your worst memory or memories... but I wasn't going to be seeing any of them tomorrow, was I? They guard the gates, so they couldn't possibly come into contact with any of us on our field trip... I hoped...

But I was wrong. Because we apparated to the bridge leading out over the water to the front gate, and as soon as I saw the famed jail, I knew something terrible would happen inside. No one noticed my shudder because the wind picked up and we couldn't even hear what Moody was saying. I followed the group out over the moat to the front gate, and we walked through. Passing through a stone courtyard, we entered through another gate and came to two gigantic doors. Moody did something weird with his hands and then knocked three times on a spot just to the right of some words on the door, and they opened. Everyone had to jump back so they wouldn't be knocked down by the huge doors, and then we hurried inside. Everything was silent.

We all huddled together in the entryway while Moody went and spoke to a wizard in black robes standing across the room. He pointed to us and the wizard nodded, then they talked for a few minutes. Moody returned and led us down a hall to the right, and up some twisting stairs. This is where my memory stops. For as we came to the top of the stairs and started down a hall of cells, I saw a dementor float toward us. Kingsley and some other people ducked out of its' way but I wasn't quick enough.

It hovered in front of me and I felt my stomach sink down to my feet as everything went cold. I couldn't move and suddenly all I could think about was that night when I was sixteen. It had been a cool summer night and I was driving back from my boyfriend's house listening to some dumb bubble-gum song on the radio. I pulled up to my house and decided to park on the street, as Sirius' car was in the driveway and he'd probably need to leave first in the morning. And the fact that his car was at my house probably meant that his friends James, Peter, and Remus were here too! I was excited and I hurried up toward the door, anticipating all the stupid stuff we could do until the wee hours of the morning.

But then I heard something over to my right, some leaves rustling or something. I glanced over, I was almost to the door, and then I saw it. It was a huge wolf, and it was growling at me. Taken aback and startled out of my mind, I backed away from the beast, which was also in a direction away from the door. The wolf bounded toward me and tackled me hard, pinning me down on the ground. But just before it hit me, I realized that it wasn't a wolf at all. It was a _werewolf. _And seeing as I was all alone on my street and I was about to get bitten or killed by this thing, I did the only thing I could do: I screamed. As loudly as I could. The werewolf rolled me over and I slammed into the sidewalk, now face up again, and he raised a menacing paw but just at that moment, the front door flew open and two boys shot out of it with a big black dog. The dog was on top of the werewolf in a second, and Peter tackled him too as James ran over to me.

"Are you okay?" he asked simply, while gathering me up into his arms. I think I nodded, I can't really remember, but as he carried me into the house I looked back and saw the werewolf was changing. He was changing back into his human form! I gasped and, when James shut the front door, I hurried over to our big bay window looking out on the yard. I saw the pain he went through, the torment. Blood was everywhere, and at last he fell down and whimpered from the strain. I still couldn't tell who it was, but as Sirius changed back from his animagus form and clothed the man in a t-shirt, I caught a view of his head.

"REMUS!" I called just a little too loudly, and James shot me a menacing look. The kind of look that says 'Shut up and we might explain later.' So I did. And as they helped Remus in the door and through the living room, his eyes caught mine and I read them. Really read them. He was hurting, and he was sorry, and he was angry at himself, and he was in terrible pain, and he needed someone. My heart felt like it was breaking, as I looked after them once they had gone into the bathroom. But I felt like I understood him.


	6. Ron Weasley

My experience with a dementor  
Author: TraScully  
Rating: K  
Summary: So... how would our favorite Harry Potter characters react to the dementors? Or, how _did_ they react to them?

Note: I took crazy mad personal liberties when describing the inside of Azkaban and visiting rights and the wards, etc. I have no idea what Azkaban is like, because we're never really taken there. So I tried to make it plausible... it made sense to me that they'd want some wizards there at all times, not just the dementors. It just seemed like something could go wrong and it's not like dementors are going to jump up and help... so yeah. If you have any better ideas for the prison, review and tell me because I'm trying to make it believable. Thanks!

**Chapter 6: Ron Weasley  
**The first and only time I've ever been affected by a dementor was on the train to Hogwarts. Sirius Black was on the loose, and they had come on the train to search for him. Of course I was a little scared, but not half as scared as Hermione. She looked like she was about to fall down and die! But I, I could handle it. Oh yeah. Definitely.

So it opened our cabin door, rignt? Right. And then it sort of looked in at us one by one, and the second it looked at me it felt like my heart froze. Yeah, I said froze. It was bloody creepy. So then I couldn't remember where I was or anything, and all I could think about were the times mum and dad congratulated Bill and Charlie and Percy on getting Prefect and Head Boy and moving to Romania and getting all those OWLs and NEWTs and how I'd always been kind of the failurewell, aside from Fred and George, I guessbut at least they were good at something! They were making all those joke things and they knew what they were going to do with their lives and I secretly thought that was kind of cool.

So then all I could think about were the times my brothers and even my sister had done better than I had and how my parents were always fawning over them and that I was kind of the 'freak' of the family, and how with Harry and Hermione they were always on the same page I mean, Harry is just about the best Defense against the Dark Arts student in Hogwarts' history, and Hermione is the brightest witch in a century, aside from McGonagall probably, and that I just didn't quite fit in with them.

And then I just felt like a big fat failure and I couldn't get the heavy feeling out of my stomach when I felt things return to normal again. I stopped shivering and I opened my eyes. Hermione was sitting next to me, as if she'd just gone through the same thing, and Lupin was sitting next to Harry on the ground. That was just too weird.


	7. Hermione Granger

My experience with a dementor  
Author: TraScully  
Rating: K  
Summary: So... how would our favorite Harry Potter characters react to the dementors? Or, how _did_ they react to them?

Note: I took crazy mad personal liberties when describing the inside of Azkaban and visiting rights and the wards, etc. I have no idea what Azkaban is like, because we're never really taken there. So I tried to make it plausible... it made sense to me that they'd want some wizards there at all times, not just the dementors. It just seemed like something could go wrong and it's not like dementors are going to jump up and help... so yeah. If you have any better ideas for the prison, review and tell me because I'm trying to make it believable. Thanks!

**Chapter 7: Hermione Granger**  
It was the start of my third year at Hogwarts. I was on the train in a compartment with Harry, Ron, and Professor Lupin when all the power went out. Ron said something ingenius like "I think something just came on board!" when the dementor opened our cabin door and I felt the worst feeling I have ever experienced. It was horrible! I gasped for air, but it felt like my lungs didn't work anymore. Plus it was freezing cold and my mouth was gaping open at the looming creature. I tried to look away but it was holding me there.

All at once all those memories came back to mewhen Draco Malfoy had called me a 'mudblood,' in the bookstore when his father looked down upon me and my parents, all the time in class when I heard whispers from the Slytherins frowning upon me for my family. It was too much.

It all crashed down upon me, and then I relived all the late nights in my bed reading until dawn, the hours in the library on weekends, the endless essays and practicing spells and memorizing and studying and devoting my time to books and history and numbers. I had thought it would fix things, that somehow if I excelled in my classes, that my social life would just improve at the snap of my fingers. Needless to say, I was wrong.

I remembered all the times I had hurried, crying, to Professor McGonagall's office or classroom when the pressure had been too much. At first I felt guilty about taking up her time, but she always assured me that it really was alright. She made me feel better and inspired me to keep going. After all, her own father was a muggle and her mother hadn't been a very talented witch. She had endured everything I was going through, and had come out to be the most powerful witch of her time, and my heroine.

Suddenly Professor Lupin awoke and, with a beautiful owl-like patronus, warded off the dementor. I breathed a sigh of relief. But then Harry fainted.


End file.
